


The Tenth Day Of Christmas

by tscSNK (tsc)



Series: The Twelve Days Of Christmas [10]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-23
Updated: 2014-12-23
Packaged: 2018-03-03 01:21:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,881
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2832980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tsc/pseuds/tscSNK
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eren, Mikasa and Armin decorate the Christmas tree.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Tenth Day Of Christmas

_On the tenth day of Christmas…_

 

The house was quiet aside from the muffled sounds of voices coming from the living room.  There was soft music playing quieter than that, and the scent of gingerbread and cinnamon slowly started to drift into the room.  And all Eren wanted to do was stay curled up in his bed and mope.

Christmas was not a happy time for Eren Jaeger.

And it was the same every year.

He reached out and grabbed another pillow from beside his head before hugging it to his chest and burying his head into the top. He took a deep breath and let out a sigh.  Christmas meant family, but his family was broken.

He wasn’t sure how long he stayed there for, but sounds of feet padding down the halls made his ears perk up. His door opened a little more and a soft sigh could be heard from behind him.

“Eren…”

It was Mikasa, and Eren squeezed his eyes shut tighter.

The girl sighed once more before walking into the room. Eren felt the bed dip under him and he gave in to roll onto his back.  The lights in the room were off, and the only light source was coming from the hallway, making Mikasa look more like a shadow than a person beside him.

“You do this every year, Eren.” she said softly, letting her hand move out to brush a few strands of hair off of the boy’s forehead.

“I can’t help it.” Eren mumbled, turning his head away. “After mom died and dad stopped showing up at all, it doesn’t feel like Christmas anymore.”

Mikasa bit the inside of her lip, keeping herself calm. She had this discussion with Eren every December, and it was starting to get tiresome.  But she knew better than to say anything, because it was the way Eren dealt with his problems.  He stewed in them for a few weeks, and then he’d be back to normal. It’s what he did, and Mikasa had learned to keep out of it.

They had the same issues after all. Mikasa and Eren were siblings. Mikasa was adopted, but it was still all the same in the end.  They’d both lost parents; they’d both lost Eren’s mother and Eren’s father. Mikasa had just found a better way to deal with how she felt.

“You should get out of bed though. I know you don’t think it feels like Christmas, but we need some help.  Grandpa Arlert got the tree out of storage and Armin is helping him bring up all the ornaments.  You should come help.”

“But—”

“Grandpa has also made his special hot chocolate.”

Eren’s ears perked up more than that, and he even turned his head slowly to look at his sister.

“With the peppermint and the marshmallows?” he asked almost cautiously.

Mikasa let a small smile spread on her face, knowing that was going to win the battle over anything.  “With the peppermint and the marshmallows. I heard it’s extra chocolaty, too.”

Eren sat up and rubbed his eyes. “I’ll come drink hot chocolate.” he mumbled before wiggling himself to the edge of the bed.  Mikasa took it as a small victory and led them out of the bedroom.

Everything in the living room had been shifted around earlier that day to make room for the artificial Christmas tree. The bottom half was already in its place while the top half was laying in front of the fireplace.

“Come on; help me get the rest of the tree feathered out.” Mikasa said, reaching for Eren’s arm and pulling him towards the tree.

With little effort, the two got the top of the tree attached and they both got to work spreading each of the branches and tuffs, making the tree look full and very unlike Charlie Brown’s tree.

“This is the last box of ornaments.” Armin announced as he walked into the living room from the kitchen.  His face was red and his hair was sticking to his forehead from the sweat he had built up from carrying heavy boxes.  “I don’t need to work out for at least another year, now.” he said, bending to rest his hands on his knees as he caught his breath.

Eren couldn’t stop the small smile from tugging at his lips at the sight of his best friend, and he found himself moving across the room to wrap his arms around Armin’s waist from behind.   The small blond jumped slightly, straightening his back and eyes wide with shock before he relaxed against the brunet.

“I am glad to see you’re up, Eren.” he said quietly before turning in Eren’s arms to wrap his own around the taller boy’s neck.

“I heard there was going to be hot chocolate.”

At that, Armin couldn’t help but laugh into Eren’s neck, which only helped muffle the sound a bit.

“Of course, and while Grandpa gets it ready, I’m going to shower.”  Armin pulled out of Eren’s embrace and turned to Mikasa.  “Can you two maybe start testing the lights and wrapping them on?”

“You got it, Armin.”  Mikasa said with a smile, moving to the boxes to search for the lights.

Armin left them in the living room soon after and the two got to work.  The lights all worked for the most part, only seeing maybe one or two bulbs burnt out. They figured if they hid them on the back of the tree, they wouldn’t notice as much.  By the time Armin came back in clean clothes and with clean hair, Eren and Mikasa had managed to get the lights and the silver garland up.

“Looks good, guys.”  A booming voice came from behind Armin, and the three kids all smiled at the older gentleman that had entered the room with a tray of mugs. He set the mugs down on the coffee table, which was far from where it should have been, before collapsing down in his beat up armchair.  “Enjoy.”

Eren was the first to grab his mug with greedy hands and wide eyes.  Just the sight of it had him salivating, and as he took his first sip, he thought he was going to fly into the sun from happiness.  It didn’t feel like Christmas still, but Grandpa Arlert’s hot chocolate was the greatest thing in the world.  He didn’t even care that he burnt his tongue on the drink.

The four of them sat around the disaster of a living room while they enjoyed their hot chocolate.  They discussed school and their part time jobs before the subject turned to the holidays and nostalgic feelings.  It was a particular story of a Christmas party at the Jaeger’s that had Eren’s heartstrings pulling in his chest.  He missed his parents, but he was always happy to talk highly of them.  Even his father, who he still had no idea where he went.  They talked of Christmas parties and New Years parties.  They talked of camping trips during Easter and the family gatherings of Thanksgiving.

The more they spoke, the more Eren’s chest ached, but the happier he was because he could share happy stories with his new family.

Finally, when they had drained all their hot chocolate, Grandpa Arlert got to work cleaning the kitchen and left the trio to decorate the tree.

“We should all take a box for ourselves and decorate sections?”  Armin suggested, looking at the stack of boxes he had brought up from the storage.

Eren and Mikasa nodded and moved to grab boxes off of the stack.  There were only four, and when Mikasa opened hers she frowned.

“These aren’t tree ornaments.” She mumbled, pulling out a wreath and large red bows.

“Ah, yeah we still can decorate the rest of the house if we want.” Armin said with a shrug.  “There is one more box, those are probably ornaments.”

The girl moved to the other box, and sure enough there were more traditional ornaments; glass balls and beads.

The three of them got to work quietly as they all stewed in their own thoughts.  Christmas music was playing softly from the television, and Eren was slowly starting to feel the Christmas seeping into him.

Eren’s ornament box was full of plastic balls with cheesy Christmas sayings scrawled across them, mixed with a few others; “Baby boy’s first Christmas!” “Just Married - 1968!” 

Armin’s box was filled mostly with ornaments that had been made in school, by him or his own parents.  There were a few trinkets made by his Grandmother, even. And a smile couldn’t stay off his face as he looked at each one before placing them strategically on the tree in his designated area.

With the three of them working together, they managed to get the tree decorated in record time.  They all stood back and looked at their work before looking at one another with wide grins.

“You two did a good job!” Grandpa came back from the kitchen to check in on the three kids, surprised to see that the tree was mostly done.  “You’re just missing one thing.”

“The angel!” Armin cried, scurrying over to the box which Mikasa had originally opened first.  He dug past the wreaths and bows and found the angle wrapped in newspaper at the bottom.  He was grinning as he unwrapped the ornament and looked up to his Grandfather.  “Do you want to do it?” he asked, holding out the angel.

Grandpa Arlert shook his head slowly. “I think you can handle it, Armin.”

“I’m going to need a stool…” he mumbled, stepping towards the tall tree and looking up at the top.  It seemed to tower over him suddenly.

Eren rolled his eyes with a smirk on his head before bending at the knee.  “Get on my shoulders, Arm’” he said, reaching over to tap the boy’s leg.

“You sure?”

“Of course I’m sure.”  Eren said, laughing softly.  “Don’t make me change my mind.”

“R-right.”

Armin carefully climbed up onto Eren’s back, and grabbed onto Mikasa’s arm for balance as Eren stood back up properly. Armin took a moment to resituate himself on the boy’s shoulders, and Eren hooked his arms tightly around Armin’s legs to keep him steady.  They moved closer to the tree, and Armin reached up and attached the angel to the top branch.

A flash nearly shocked Armin off of Eren’s shoulders, and the two spun around with wide eyes.  At some point in the exchange, Mr. Arlert had left the room to grab his camera and was holding it in front of his face with a smile barely visible behind the device.

“That was gold.” He said quietly. “Now, let’s do a nice one.”

“Should I get down?”  Armin asked, frowning.

“It’s fine.” Grandpa replied. “Smile!”

It took a few moments for them to calm down from the shock of the flash, but soon enough, Mikasa wrapped one of her arms around Eren’s waist and leaned into him while Eren’s grip on Armin’s legs remained tight.  Armin beamed atop Eren’s shoulders, and threw his hands above his head in a sort of victory stance.

“Three… two… one…” Grandpa counted down before the flash.  “I think that’s going to be our Christmas card.  Happy Holiday’s from the Arlert-Jaeger-Ackerman’s”

**Author's Note:**

> [tumblr!](http://tscwrites.tumblr.com)  
>  Proofread by [Nelly-Belly](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Dot333/works)!


End file.
